Klansmen Confederacy
The Klansmen Confederacy (officially the United Chapters of the Klan and popularly "The New South") is a post-war nation in western Mississippi, formerly part of the Gulf Commonwealth. Known as the power base of the Klan and infamous for the extreme demonetization and violence of its citizens towards mutants and non-white humans, most outsiders view its fanatical "Grand Wizards" and growing economic and military powers with distrust and fear. Still, many communities outside its borders and on the banks of the River depend on its militia and merchants for their protection and financial gain. History Pre War Fourth Founding (2070-2077) Ever since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1985 and the end of segregation in the South, the third iteration of the Klu Klux Klan had fallen on hard times. By 2060, they only had 3,000 members nationwide and had been labeled a "hate group" by the U.S. government. The Klu Klux Klan's fortunes began to change though in 2066, when the war with China began. Jingoistic attitudes became the norm and benefitted the Klan enormously. In 2068, the South was rocked by supposed terrorist attacks by Chinese saboteurs, some black. This fear motivated the Klan to step up to the plate and take the initiative. During the night of July 1, 2068, the Klansmen near the naval shipyards of Pascagoula, Mississippi (Gulf Commonwealth) were patrolling the streets, as they were the neighborhood watch at that time. They sighted a Chinese man bearing a suitcase walking towards the shipyards. Suspicious of him both because of his race and his cargo, the Klansmen assailed him, asking about his business at this hour. The Chinese man attempted to flee but was beaten down by the overzealous Klansmen. It was discovered that the suitcase the Chinese man was carrying was an explosive and after some hard questioning, it was also discovered that the man was an actual spy. The Klansmen saw the opportunity in using this to their advantage and held the spy in their custody for two more days until handing in the spy on the night of July 3 so that all the papers would read KKK CATCHES CHINESE SABOTEUR on July 4. This gained the Klan a great deal of good publicity and credibility. Of course, it was ignored that the other numerous times that Klansmen (especially the ones near Pascagoula) had attacked blacks and Chinese, they did not turn out to be spies. The Klan began a steady period of growth, gaining many members as a result of the good publicity given to them. By December 2069, the Klu Klux Klan had grown to over a million, less than its historical figures but still substantial growth. Most of these members were in the South, with the Gulf Commonwealth being the center of Klan influence. On December 24, 2070, the anniversary of the founding of the first Klan, Klan leaders from all across America met in a Great Conclave in the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi to reorganize the old and decrepit Third Klan into a better and more efficient Fourth Klan. Although the Conclave was met with much protest from the University's black residents, the Fourth Klu Klux Klan was formally created by the next week. From 2070 to 2077, the newly strengthened Klan tried to flex its collective muscle to gain political and social power. Many Klan members were voted into power in commonwealth governments. It was even rumored that the Governor of the Gulf Commonwealth was a member himself, which he publicly denied. In 2071, the Klan made a bold move, attempting to have a march down Pennsylvania Avenue as the Second Klan did. When they were refused, the KKK simply marched into Baltimore instead with over five thousand men. The next year, a film, named the Night Watch was made about the events of July 1, 2068, casting the Klansmen as heroes against the villainous Chinese spy. This marked the high water mark of Klan influence in America, where their numbers swelled to four million, numbers to rival the old days. However, this all changed after the Mass Massacre. The Klan in Texas was often involved in border incidents and clashes with illegal immigrating Mexicans from U.S.-occupied Mexico, who they hated for both their religion and their race. On September 13, 2073, a coyote shuttling illegal immigrants over the border shot one of the Klansmen, killing him. In response, the Klansmen crossed the border into Mexico and in a blatant miscommunication attacked a crowd of Mexicans returning from morning Mass, killing eleven people, including two children. News of the "massacre" spread like wildfire and once again captivated the national. The Klu Klux Klan leadership decided to cut their losses and also condemn the attack, but by then it was too late. The damage had been done. The decline of the Klan was not immediate but was a process. It first began with corruption cases in the Southeast Commonwealth, which exposed many of politicians there of Klan ties that helped them in their illicit activities. Next, it was the continual news reporting of the racist and violent actions of the Klan, possibly to gloss over the government's even more nefarious action. The final nail in coffin was the conviction of the governor of the Gulf Commonwealth, who everyone knew to be a member of the Klan, of tax evasion in 2073. By December 2073, the Klan's numbers barely topped half a million. Their brief resurgence had ended. However, this did not mark the end of the Klu Klux Klan itself. The Klan stubbornly held onto members in the Gulf Commonwealth. Western Mississippi became a hotbed for Klan activity with over nine thousand registered members in four chapters across six countries. There also a large separatist chapter in Texas formed in the aftermath of the Mass Massacre. The Klan once again gained some type of relevance in 2076, when martial law was declared throughout the United States. The Klan seized on this, reversing its former patriotic stance, and publicly joined rioters in marching on the capital of the Gulf Commonwealth, Birmingham, in December 2076. In the "Battle of Birmingham", rioters, radicals, and Klansmen fought the National Guard to demand a return to state government and a reduction of federal powers. That winter, Birmingham burned. The Klu Klux Klan continued insurgent activities after federal troops took back Birmingham in 2077. In one of his last addresses to the country, the current president of the United States named the Klu Klux Klan, among others, a terrorist organization. The Grand Dragon of the Mississippi KKK at that time, Robert Hendricks, was hiding out in Vicksburg at the time. One of the senators of the Mississippi Congressional District, Hendricks had connections in high places, specifically in the shadow government that eventually became the Enclave. His informant didn't care that he was now the head of a terrorist organization, only that they were old friends. Hendricks knew a nuclear attack from China would come by October 2077 and he meant to be prepared. Building a football field sized bunker outside of Vickburg using his public funds, Hendricks informed several other Klan leaders nearby and even some as faraway as Alabama of the coming doom. As the sirens began to go off all over America on October 23, 2077, Hendricks and much of the Gulf Commonwealth Klan leadership entered their bunker outside Vicksburg to wait out the apocalypse. Post War The Great Scourge (2077-2090) In Mississippi, fewer bombs fell than in most states since there were fewer strategic targets there. Nuclear bombs fell on Jackson, Meridian, Columbus, the Memphis metropolitan area, and the Gulf Coast. Like most people, the majority of the Klan succumbed to the bombings, either from the blasts, or the radiation. These weren't the only effects of the war, as flash-hurricanes devastated the Gulf coast and riots raged for weeks. The bombs and hurricanes were not what hurt Mississippi. No, it was the radiation that did it. Now here were thousands upon thousands of feral ghouls on the highways, ever hungry with both refugees and raider bands fleeing them. In other places, the Klan acted more erratically and radically as the apocalypse continued. The first sign of this radicalization came from the campus of the University of Mississippi with the captain of the football team and a fifth generation member of the Klan organizing the white students. He blamed the war on "the jews, and negroes" and lead the small crowd of survivors into turning into a mob, that lynched all of them they could catch. After their violence was satisfied, they began to collect food and water and guns. After the riots calmed down, they began to receive travelers and refugees at the campus, which they had began to fortify against the wandering hordes of raiders and mutants. Finding several other members in the flock, a chapter was quickly established. They then began getting to know their fellow survivors, with anyone who wasn't a white protestant marked down secretly. They made their move in January 2078, gathering together in the middle of the night before donning their robes and moving from dorm to dorm, murdering those marked down as "unpure mud-blooded dogs" and told the survivors to burn the bodies. This caused many survivors to flee instead. The Klan in "Ole Miss" began to decline. On February 20, 2078, Grand Dragon Robert Hendricks and his elite cadre of Klan leadership emerged from their bunker to see the outside. The world now was grey, covered with a layer of nuclear fallout and radiation. Vicksburg had been abandoned for fear of nuclear bombing, which had not come. The city did have some ghoul squatters in it, both feral and intelligent. Hendricks and his Klan friends did not care whether the ghouls were intelligent or not and shot all of them. On January 14, the now self appointed Grand Wizard Hendricks hauled the Klan flag up above Vicksburg and claimed it as the property of the Klu Klux Klan. Fortifying himself in the city, Hendricks sent out his Klan leaders into the wasteland back to gather all the loyal Klansmen they could find in their former towns and bring them back, saying with a smile: "The South shall rise again." Whether Hendricks deliberately planned on declaring his independence upon exiting the the bunker or if it was a break neck decision is a contested topic among Klan historians. Most places were burnt out husks, burned either by nuclear fire or rioters. However, the Klansman who journeyed to Oxford in 2079 was pleasantly surprised to find the campus of UM under the control of Klansmen. Seeing the deteriorating conditions on the campus, the visiting Klansmen preached of a "promised land" to the south where there were only whites and good land to farm. The desperate people believed him and followed on an exodus south to Vickburg. The some of the Klansmen in and around Vicksburg had also survived the war, thanks to quick thinking by residents. The survivors from Oxford were settled in Hinds County near the ruins of Jackson, where they built the town of Barnett. It was not as good as promised but it was better than starving. The following decade was a hard one. Crops failed at first and many starved. Raiders from the north attacked while feral ghouls were also a common threat. However, by the late 2080s, things had begun to settle down and the Klan's crops began to grow. In 2089, the now aged Robert Hendricks called together the Klansmen of the area to a Great Conclave in Vicksburg, saying that "there must be order, or there will be chaos". He was referring to the fact that the Klan was, at that point, simply a racist town militia that was only loosely connected. By the end of that Great Conclave, the four main chapters of the Klan were created and made a pact with each other, forming the United Klan Chapters (UKC), informally known as the Klansmen Confederacy. The Wars of Expansion (2090-2142) The year after the establishment of the Klansmen Confederacy, Grand Wizard Hendrick died of heart failure. His successor, Jason Bowie was one of Hendricks' "bunker bunch" and showed great favoritism toward his fellows in the "bunch". A corrupt but not stupid man, Bowie wanted to use the Klan to expand the Klansmen Confederacy without angering the Chapters. However, donning the red robes seemed to give Bowie a hunger. A hunger for better land and an insane need for security is which what ultimately led to war (not unlike other pre-War leaders). By 2093, Bowie had local Klansmen mobilized daily to deal with raiders, ghouls, and "undesirables" that wandered onto Klan land. This almost daily fight made many in the Klan resentful of Bowie, and some even plotted treason. Realizing that his popularity was not especially high, Bowie attempted to whip up some patriotic fervor in 2095 by rallying the Klan chapters' militias to wipe out some infamous slavers based outside the ruins of bombed out Jackson, starting the first "War of Expansion". Assembling his little army at Barnett, Bowie marched on the slavers' camp in the former Lefleurs Bluff State Park. After a brief firefight, Bowie wiped out the slavers and burned their camp to the ground. Interestingly, all the slaves present were set free and cut loose, white, black, and Asian. After that, Bowie gained more respect as a military leader from the rest of the Klan chapters. He and the rest of the "bunker bunch" cemented themselves as the leaders of the Klansmen Confederacy for almost the next fifty years. Also, Bowie learned that controlling the Chapters directly would not be easy. There were no real Wars of Expansion for the rest of Bowie's reign as Grand Wizard, beyond the occasional clash with raiders. In later years, Bowie preferred a hands-off approach to governance, so as not to anger the local Grand Dragons. This let each Chapter become in effect its own small country. Also he opened up legal trade with the outside for the first time in 2108, setting up the River Klan's economic success down the road. Grand Wizard Jason Bowie died in a tragic ghoul hunting accident in 2108, paving the way for his successor, another of the "bunker bunch" Andrew Taylor. Less shrewd than his predecessor, Taylor was a bull of a man from Lincoln County and had fought federal troops at Birmingham but had grown into almost a pacifist in his later years. He was not a man to be trifled with. Not understanding the fragile balance of the Chapters, Taylor often overstepped his boundaries to get what he wanted. Once, when a Great Conclave was called in 2111 to discuss the issue of possible black sharecropping (which he was against since he believed the races should be apart at all costs), Taylor walked out of the Conclave and broke the neck of a man who tried to stop him. This led to him being more unpopular than Bowie in his early days and even threatened the integrity of the Confederacy itself. Also, all the remaining horses in the Confederacy died during Taylor's office, giving him the nickname "Horsebane". So, in 2114, Taylor was killed in an ambush while traveling to a Great Conclave. No one asked who did it and no one cared. Bowie's lenience and Taylor's stupidity had led to a decay in the office of Grand Wizard. Heck Robertson,a younger member of the "bunker bunch", managed to reverse that. A charismatic, bombastic man, Robertson won the hearts, if not the minds, of many Klansmen in the Confederacy. He often relied on nostalgia to hearken back to better days. Wanting to win glory and the loyalty of his Klansmen, Robertson dreamed up the next War of Expansion: a white line of Klansmen journeying through the wilderness, cleansing everyone's dear Mississippi of the filth of mutation and savagery with organization and pure superiority. Also, this war would provide them with invaluable information about other counties and even states. After almost a decade of planning, in 2125 Robertson's first War of Expansion was conducted north of Barnett. A force of almost one hundred Klansmen from all over the UKC went up I-55 all the way to Batesville, stamping out raiders and killing ghouls, tribals, and sometimes blacks indiscriminately. This either left a positive memory of Klan as local heroes for some or a negative memory of them as genocidal monsters to others. Returning in November 2125, Robertson felt the war to be a success. So, he led the Klan in three other Wars of Expansion (2128, 2131, 2136) with varying success. In the last one, Robertson died of pneumonia while on campaign in 2136 and was buried in an unmarked grave by the road, as he wanted. Robertson's death was mourned by many inside and outside the Confederacy. The next Grand Wizard, Clyde Booth, was sixty-five and another member of the "bunker bunch". A soft, weak man, Booth let others make decisions for him while indulging in the luxuries of office and brought down the status of the office of Grand Wizard. It did not help that he did not lead any Wars of Expansion, leaving it to the Grand Dragons, at this time and developed dementia. In 2139, Booth died of unknown causes. The man who followed Booth was the last and possibly the least of the "bunker bunch". Gordon Rhett was a former protege of Andrew Taylor and even to a worst extreme. Ignoring the Chapters, Rhett called a Wars of Expansion but refused to lead it. The next War of Expansion he did lead though (many believe these were to stave off his growing unpopularity). This second war proved to be his undoing in 2142 when he was shot in the head by an unknown wastelander sniper. The Dark Age (2142-2207) The last of the "bunker bunch" and the Wars of Expansion had passed. The line between the Hill Klan and River Klan chapters were becoming more clearly defined and causing internal trouble. The next Grand Wizard, Stephen Monroe, was a Grand Dragon from Barnett, one of the Hill Klan chapters. Monroe hated outside influences on the Klan and thought that the Wars of Expansion were too costly and expensive to continue. However, he saw that restricted trade with rafters would anger the River Klans. So, to make everyone happy in his eyes, Monroe made a secret agreement, named the Monroe Deal, with all the Grand Dragons of the UKC chapters. This Deal outlined the powers of four Grand Dragons and the one Grand Wizard as theoretically the same. The made each Klan chapter power to themselves, with the Grand Wizard as more a figurehead leader now. This allowed the Hill Klan chapter to restrict contact with all non-Klan peoples within their territory, while the River Klan chapter could continue trade with rafters on the River. Although it seemed like the Deal benefitted everyone involved, it ultimately weakened the Klansmen Confederacy's unity, handicapping it for many years. The rest of Monroe's reign was surprisingly peaceful. The Chapters kept to themselves and managed their own affairs. This policy of isolation and self management kept the peace for the next two Grand Wizards (2147-2164). However, things could never remain so peaceful. In Lincoln County, savage Swampers from the Florida Parishes were raiding constantly, sometimes even twice a month. The problem reached a head when the Swampers actually defeated the Klan militia of the Lincoln Chapter in a pitched battle outside town in 2165. Alarmed by this, Grand Wizard Nathan Clark decided to bring the Klan together once again to combat the menace to the south. Gathering sixty men from all over the UKC, Clark plunged into the swamps south of Lincoln in 2166, never to return. Other men did return and what they said haunted the UKC for years. Cannibalism, mysticism, and incest were common with the Swampers. One Klansmen, a Lee Orman, wrote a book on the Swampers and his own experiences in the Florida Parishes, entitled The Heart of Decay. Not popular in its time, The Heart of Decay Was more successful later. After that, the Klans decided to ignore the problem on their southern border and let Lincoln solve its own problems. This dealt another blow to the Klansmen Confederacy's unity. Although the Swampers stopped raiding Lincoln eventually, the die was cast. After the disastrous campaign in the Parishes, the Grand Dragons decided to take action. In 2167, the assembled Grand Dragons called a Great Conclave of their own, the first in almost twenty years. There, they demanded that the Grand Wizard make them the sole commanders of their chapters' militia, who no one else could command (the Grand Wizard included). Neutered by the Monroe Deal, the tired old Grand Wizard agreed to the Grand Dragons' demands. This began a true dark age in the Klansmen Confederacy's history. After the death of the old Grand Wizard in 2171, a new one was elected in Vicksburg. This tradition of electing a Grand Wizard from Vicksburg became somewhat of a tradition, since most of the other Klan chapters were beyond caring and simply wanted to be left alone. In the following years, the Klan chapters and their Grand Dragons eked out an existence on their own, only paying lip service to the Grand Wizard in Vicksburg because of their reverence for the past. The River Klan chapters in Cotton Bluff and Natchez continued their trade with rafters with few reservations. However, even generation or so, the towns would drive out or kill any "undesirables" that had stayed in their town so as to keep their racial purity such as in 2185 and 2194. Their Klan traditions drove many rafters away, but few had that luxury and had to endure the river stretch from Vicksburg to Natchez. In 2195, super mutants fleeing from the Brotherhood of Steel's campaigns in the north washed up near Vicksburg. After some Klansmen tried to ward them off with some warning shots, the supe mutants sacked Vicksburg and took up residence in Robert Hendricks old bunker. For the next ten years, the River Klan chapters tried to dislodge the Super Mutants, to no avail. The Hill Klan chapters became more insular, not leaving their settlements excepts to trade with other Klansmen and to raid "undesirable" settlements that the Klan saw as blights on the earth. It is perhaps ironic that it was a Hill Klansmen that brought the Klansmen Confederacy out of its Dark Age and created it as the nation-state it is today. The New Grand Dragon (2207-2246) The River Nation (2246-2268) The Crucifix War (2268-2281) Culture The Klansmen Confederacy is primarily divided into three different cultures: River Klan-Living on the Mississippi River, the River Klan chapters are marginally more tolerant than the others. They have almost constant exposure to rafters from ends of the river. However, they still retain views of white supremacy, just not as severe as the other chapters. The River Klan are thought of by most as plantation owners and merchants but are mostly made up of subsistence farmers and fisherman. Hill Klan-On the other hand, the Hill Klans embody any outsiders worst nightmare of the Klan. The Hill Klan chapters are in the Piney Woods and hilly regions of Central Mississippi, and they have a long tempered hatred for blacks, mutants, and other "undesirables". The way to deal with these "undesirables" is simple: get out or die. The Hill Klan chapters are mostly made up of subsistence farmers and hunters. New Klan-The New Klan is made up of the newly joined Klan chapters that have recently joined the UKC. The values of these New Klan chapters greatly vary. Some chapters more closely resemble other typical settlements in the wasteland than their fellow Klansmen while others wholly embrace the Klan. The New Klan chapters are a combination of whatever one can imagine comes from the wasteland that the Klan will tolerate. However, all three "kultures" have common features. All Klan towns and settlements are made up of white human only permanent residents. Of course, there are some loopholes, but this is the general rule. Also, all Klansmen are required to be part of a Protestant denomination, whether it be Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian. This causes enforced "conservative" rules on things such as alcohol, prostitution, and homosexuality. Economy The Klansmen Confederacy is mostly dependent on farming, a common feature in the 23rd century. Trade on the river is what really drives the economy. Money is made from trade with rafters, as well as tolls on certain parts of the river. Government An ethnic confederation, the Klansmen Confederacy elects its officials democratically from the local mayor to the Grand Wizard. Of course, all voters must be members of the Klan itself. The chain of command in the Klansmen Confederacy is straightforward. On top, there is the Grand Wizard, the leader of the Confederacy whose powers vary with whoever holds the office. Below him are the Grand Dragons, who preside over one Klan chapter. The mayors of towns and the Grand Titans, the leaders of local Klan councils, are about on the same level of importance. In case something jarring happens or a important issue comes up that affects the whole UKC, a Great Conclave is called to judge the matter. Military One of the Klans' main functions in the wasteland is the fact that they are a militia to fight external threats. The Klan trains every other week or maybe month in shooting and combat. Troop quality varies from chapter to chapter and sometimes even town to town. The Klan militia acts as the UKC's military. Relations Gallery File:RallyOfKnights.jpg|Early knights and militia, photographed in 2086. File:UCTKmap.png| Map of Mississippi with Pre-War county lines. Red regions indicate strong UCTK presence, orange represents a lighter, but active presence. File:Axe.jpg| Typical Hill Klan greeting File:River.jpg|Typical River Klan greeting File:New.jpg| Typical New Klan greeting Category:Groups